02-2305 CITY OF MIAMI V. VALDEZ

SUPREME COURT CASES

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State: Florida

Court: Florida Third District Court

Docket No: 02-2305 CITY OF MIAMI V. VALDEZ

Case Date: 04/23/2003

Preview:NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DISPOSED OF. IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA THIRD DISTRICT JANUARY TERM, A.D. 2003 CITY OF MIAMI, Appellant, vs. MARCOS VALDEZ Appellee. ** ** ** ** ** CASE NO. 3D02-2305 LOWER TRIBUNAL NO. 99-29887

Opinion filed April 23, 2003.
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida, Amy N. Dean, Judge. Alejandro Vilarello, City Attorney and Christropher A. Green and Mimi V. Turin, Assistant City Attorneys, for appellant. Robert Rossano, for appellee. Before COPE and WELLS, JJ., and NESBITT, Senior Judge. WELLS, Judge. The City of Miami appeals from a final judgment ordering it to pay $100,000 to Marcos Valdez pursuant to section 768.28, Florida Statutes (2002). On December 6, 1996, Valdez and his passenger, Oscar Ortiz, were injured in an automobile accident with a City of Miami police car. Ortiz filed suit against the City in 1997 for injuries

sustained in the accident and obtained a multi-million dollar judgment on a single claim sounding in negligence. The City and

Ortiz subsequently entered into a $5 million settlement agreement. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, the City paid $100,000 to Ortiz in accordance with the recovery limits of Florida's sovereign immunity tort statute, section 768.28(5), and agreed to assist in passage of a special claims bill to the Florida legislature for the $4.9 million balance. The claims bill was passed by the legislature and approved by the Governor on June 14, 2001. and directed the City to appropriate from That bill authorized City funds amounts

sufficient to pay Ortiz $4.9 million in a series of three payments over three years. On December 28, 1999, Valdez filed suit against the City for injuries that he sustained in the same accident. At mediation, the

parties agreed to settle Valdez's claim for $100,000 subject to the City's right to contest Valdez's entitlement to collect from the City without submission of a special claims bill to the Florida legislature. Pursuant to this agreement, the City argued below that the $200,000 per incident aggregate cap provided in section 768.28(5) had been exhausted by its payment of $100,000 to Ortiz and by its compliance with the $4.9 million special claims bill in Ortiz's favor. Valdez maintained that the $200,000 per incident aggregate

cap had not been exhausted by Ortiz's recovery on a single claim

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(only $100,000 of which had been satisfied in an action at law under section 768.28) and that the claims bill procured by Ortiz had no effect on the City's obligation to make payment to resolve his action. The trial court adopted Valdez's position. We agree.

Sovereign immunity, a doctrine that pre-dates the founding of this country, operates to shield the sovereign (generally referred to here as governmental entities) from suit in the sovereign's courts. See Cauley v. City of Jacksonville, 403 So.2d 379, 381

(Fla. 1981); D. Stephen Kahn, Legislative Claim Bills, FLA. B.J., Apr. 1988, at 23. Under this doctrine, adopted in Florida in 1822,

compensation for wrongs committed by governmental entities may be obtained solely from the legislature through the arduous legislative claims bill process. See D. Stephen Kahn at 23; see also 6 Fla.

Prac., Personal Injury & Wrongful Death Actions

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